[X3:AP] Poisoned Paranid & Tormented Teladi speed running!

[Lotharian]

Finally finished Tormented Teladi and Poisoned Paranid starts (TT was much harder!) and wondered what others' record times are. Maybe we can start documenting speed runs?

In my case I did NOT retrieve any known no-pilot ships, take advantage of any bugs, OR use any stock exchanges. (Or fight anything either.) Only built up ranks, trading and missions, with the occasional poach of a mission ship. Here's my times and a list of things / exploits / cheeses I did or did not do:

TT: 8:42:37
Start Sector: Sanctity of Corruption
Restarted to change initial ship stats? N
Exploited game bugs? N
Claimed "free" ships? N
Used stock exchanges? N
Save/load for favorable rank/mission RNG? Y (barely)
Save/load to undo "bad outcomes"? Y (barely)
Sold retrieval mission ships? Y (3 haulers)

PP: 18:35:16
Start Sector: Preacher's Refuge
Restarted to change initial ship stats? N
Exploited game bugs? N
Claimed "free" ships? N
Used stock exchanges? N
Save/load for favorable rank/mission RNG? Y (a lot at the beginning)
Save/load to undo "bad outcomes"? Y (I think just once though)
Sold retrieval mission ships? Y (1 M6)

If you post a time please full out the above! If I forgot something that should be added to the above list, let me know. Feel free to post your method and progression too. I'd like to see categories, such as "clean" which would have NO for all of the above (except maybe selling mission ships?)

I DID do some save/load early on, especially for PP, because of how utterly random the rank advancement seems. If anyone can explain the randomness on rank advancement please do. It seems to either be a random chance to get any +%, or either a random or set +% advancement, but random whether it updates your total.

I could have certainly done a lot better even under these restrictions - I didn't even think of selling the 25MJ shields for PP. But that would only have gained me an hour at most. I'll outline what I did for PP:

Spoiler

Show

(Demeter Hauler)
- Flew east out of Preacher's Refuge until I survived -- why could I never shoot down the incoming missile? Oh well.
- Immediately started TS trading in local Boron sectors for money and trade+Boron rank; my starting speed was about 74 m/s, actually a good ship though! Good combo of cargo+speed, never sold it off.
- Bought an Octopus as soon as I possibly could, leaving my trade ship behind for a little bit -- I know it's not a Kestrel, but its speed made it so much easier to start doing fast trades.

(Octopus while DH took a break)
- Did a few Teladi trades and flew up to PTNI HQ to get a TSE!

(Octopus + Demeter Hauler remote)
- Put my TS to work again remotely. I ran it in Boron sectors for a while - the TS traded for money, Octopus traded for rank.
- Octopus ecell trading in Nyana's Hideout to raise Argon rank. Man, rank raises slow from -1 to 0. Did some save/load cheese here because of how ridiculously random the rank advancement seems to be.
- Octopus trading in Teladi sectors to finally get a Kestrel. Waved goodbye to my Octopus.

(Kestrel + Demeter Hauler remote)
- Kestrel trading in Argon border sectors to open jumpdrive and docking computer. Grabbed docking computer first since it was cheap.
- I actually didn't have much extra money here since the Kestrel REALLY set me back - this is where selling the 25MJ shields would have really helped. 1 or 2 more good trades with my starting TS would have also helped a lot.
- Kept raising rank with trades and missions I could do; slowly got enough money for an Express + JD + docking comp - this set me back AGAIN and was probably too soon. I didn't even get any TP missions for a couple hours.
- Headed west to get a transporter device at Home of Light. Now I could easily do ship retrievals. Probably should have done this sooner also.

(kitted Kestrel + Express + Demeter Hauler, all w/ jd)
- Started missioning the western block of Argon sectors and invested in 9 mercuries as manual traders -- running these plus the start ship for 10 manual traders was MADDENING, but did get my trade rank up. I stopped buying mercuries because any more would have driven me completely insane (and taken too much time away from missions.)

(Missioning + maddening remote trading section)
- Explored most of the northwest so my 9 mercuries would have enough good trade spots, also to open missions. Went back to the argon block for better missions.
- After quite a few hours of this, was very happy to pass off a Mercury to a mission guy who wanted an Argon TS. I was also not very sad when pirates finally blew up Mercury #5 in Power Circle. (Honestly I really should have bought them jump drives... but then that might have been even more maddening)
- Got +10 argon rank fairly quick
- Eventually poached my only poached ship - heavy osprey M6 which I managed to repair to 100% and sell for about 11M.
- Finished out largely with TP transport missions giving increasing rewards.

Final relevant ranks:
Financier 15%
Harmless 0%

Argon +10 18%
Boron +9 92%
Split +2 73%
Teladi +7 92%

What I'd change or try next time:
- immediately sell the 25MJ shields
- be slightly more choosy with missions to focus even harder on Argon/Boron/Teladi advancement and avoid more with low rewards. Maybe even try to max only 1 or 2 race ranks.
- MAYBE look into skipping Boron space, going straight to Teladi space to rank up for Kestrel
- transporter device before TP
- run less mercuries (5 or 6) but get them jump drives?
- could do more save/load cheese on jump gates to get more favorable missions sooner... although I like the idea of doing a "clean" speed run.

[AleksMain]

According my own posts (see Poisoned Paranid start scenario and Tormented Teladi start scenario for details):

Poisoned Paranid start scenario

Below are few tips for this scenario, which can be used by other players.

I have restarted X3:Albion Prelude using Poisoned Paranid start scenario.

Main aim of my current game is as quick as possible boarding of the Xenon I capital ship.

...

So, after 18 hours and 45 minutes my pilot got more than 25 millions credits.

Since main aim of my game is boarding of the Xenon I and to pay for Hyperion Vanguard I had more than 2 days yet, then I have used my Mamber Raider for a while.
...

Tormented Teladi is a good start scenario to test brave pilots of vanilla X3:Albion Prelude.

Starting ship is Harrier Hauler with 2 IRE and S type cargo hold, 137 m/s speed and about 1000 Cr.

During less than 12 hours player need to gather 2,250,000 Cr to get Enhanced Kea...


I had made it during 6 hours 37 minutes (see screenshot using link below).
http://i.imgur.com/udmPEnW.jpg

If someone want to know how it had been done, then here are some methods:

1. Find sector with numerous battles, like some Xenon sector
2. Gather all drop, which can fit in cargo hold, like missiles, for example
3. Avoid any fights until moment, when your Harrier Hauler will be upgraded to maximum speed and steering, to 4 IRE,
buy Fight Command Software MK2 for Auto Aim.
4. Kill and claim any M5 ships, which you can
5. If enemy ship (like M4) is under attack of friendly ships and its shields had dropped to 0%, then try to cap it
6. Change your Harrier Hauler to Kestrel or something like it as soon as possible,
since it can hold M type cargo, like most expensive missiles (more than 80,000 Cr cost), for example,
and Kestrel has speed 605 m/s, so it can avoid enemy missiles.
7. Resell any suitable (damaged) fighters, which you can buy from some merchants and repair.

P.S.
I know, exist many topics with similar explanation, but this is interesting to know.